Phantasy Star Portable sells like a Monster in Japan

by Jason Dobson { Aug 6th 2008 at 3:58PM }

It's true that Phantasy Star of today is hardly recognizable to those who grew up playing with talking cats, but that probably doesn't keep Sega awake at night, especially given reports that its PSP RPG Phantasy Star Portable has been difficult to keep in stock since it was released in Japan last week.

The pint-sized version of Phantasy Star Universe has shown Monster Hunter-like momentum, apparently flying off Japanese store shelves, with both Wired and AkibaBlog reporting that 90% of the original shipment went out the door on July 31, the first day it went on sale. There remains no word as to when or if Sega will bring Phantasy Star Portable to PSP owners outside of Japan, but we'll continue to save our meseta 'til it happens.

Tags: japan, monster-hunter, phantasy-star, phantasy-star-portable, phantasy-star-universe, phantasystar, sega

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Tez (PSN: Tezasaurus) @ Aug 6th 2008 4:03PM

Imagine that.

Ninjakamster (PS360 FTW!) @ Aug 6th 2008 4:05PM

Whoohoo! Go PSP! Now if we can replicate Japan's success over here! : )

Nate @ Aug 6th 2008 4:44PM

If someone at sony would hire a freakin' Japanese to English translator, they'd probably double their income.

4MyFriends @ Aug 6th 2008 6:37PM

It's a shame its software sales are still shit overall. Outside Monster Hunter nothing sells there. Do you really want to replicate that kind of "success" here?

Snowblind @ Aug 6th 2008 4:08PM

I would have been interested in a Phantasy Star Online port.. I loved that game.

ALH @ Aug 6th 2008 4:18PM

oh god, looks like this is the game which will finally make me succumb and actually get myself a PSP.

jimmygotsmack @ Aug 6th 2008 4:15PM

Holy Jesus, although I would personally love PSO again, I can only wounder why the Japanese love rpgs so much. I mean, personally, I find monster hunter and pso to be better then your standard turn based combat, since, when you dodge something, it wasn't because your agility was 99999, but because you MOVED OUT OF THE WAY.

Have you ever seen Famitsu top 100 "games of all time". About the first 30 of them are freaken rpgs. With maybe a few exceptions.

http://www.gamed.nl/view/15077

Dopple Boppler @ Aug 6th 2008 4:33PM

Kingdom Hearts ranked higher than Street Fighter 2, Super Mario Bros. and Metal Gear Solid 3? That's even more suspect than FFVII being number 2.

jimmygotsmack @ Aug 6th 2008 5:48PM

Yes, I'm quite sadden by that, but mostly because final fantasy and dragon quest fill up the first 10 slots.

Josh @ Aug 6th 2008 6:46PM

That's because RPGs with good stories and/or RPGs that you become very attached to in the course of playing them leave the best lasting impression on the player, even years after finishing them, and more so than with games of any other genre.

So when asked to think of the best games, RPGs usually come to mind first.

j.howlett @ Aug 6th 2008 4:17PM

seeing all those stickers on the game box annoys me. i just hope its on the shrink wrap and not the case itself

F1 & The day I beat Ghost and Goblins @ Aug 6th 2008 4:24PM

Guess this means PSP just beat the tar out of DS this week again.

WRE: I own all 3! (4 if you count the DS.) @ Aug 6th 2008 4:31PM

Well, unless we know how many actual units were in the original shipment that 90% sold is a pretty arbitrary number.

Rocketboy @ Aug 6th 2008 4:37PM

My thoughts exactly. Either way, portable gaming is huge in Japan, Phantasy Star big in Japan, so this should have been expected.

Noshino @ Aug 6th 2008 4:49PM

well, first day sales were 217k and the rumored number of available units was 260k.

Also, Sega informed right away that there were 400k units on their way to retailers

Danny F. @ Aug 6th 2008 4:32PM

Please bring this overseas Sega!!

JayVe @ Aug 6th 2008 5:53PM

For serious. I keep holding onto my PSP waiting... waiting for something great. The upcoming lineup is so sad especially considering the endless possibilities of the platform.

Maybe someone will get their act together and bring out some of the 'monster' hits over here.

Jacksons @ Aug 6th 2008 5:03PM

Stickers! Stickers!

I tried the demo, wasn't too bad. Intuitive enough to figure everything out even though it's in a different language, so that's a plus.

Para @ Aug 6th 2008 7:00PM

why is it doing so well? cuz sega doesnt lock the content on the PSP version.

Mr Khan @ Aug 6th 2008 5:13PM

They really just need to make more PSO

It was the online MMO i ever got into, and it sucked out 1.5 years of my life

kenneth bjerke @ Sep 9th 2008 6:37AM

i see it's a while you posted this.. but let me assure you.. this game is 95% PSO over again, just in the PSU areas, and they kept all the good stuff from PSU killer combat system (read PA's and all those flashy moves making combos even more enjoyable than in the R.I.P PSO). no more sh*tty synthing that may break, no more breaking weapon on grindings like in PSU. This makes me really glad because that was what killed PSU. in portable you head out hunting for rares just like in PSO (allthough it seems most rar's is pretty more common than in pso). grinders does not break. it is much kinda monogrinder, digrinder and trigrinder.

actually in short: they stripped down PSU down to what PSU should had been all the time. this feels like the true successor to PSO.

atm it is a bit too easy tho.. by all means, it fun, very very fun. since i got it i have been playing 50 hours straight. current lvl cap is 100, but hackers have noticed there is a lvl 200 cap in the data. as for job lvls they found out the cap is 30 (10 is out of the box) and PA's caps out at 50 (30 out of the box) so guess SEGA will increase lvl caps in downloads (which currently seems to get out twice a month with new missions etc).

sega should really bring this game overseas. this game is truly awsome. if not i may make you happy telling you it's very playable even though it's all in japaneese, IF you got some experience with PSU menu system. a few hours try and fail and your good to go. :)

oh and at the time of writing i'm lvl 83, 4/8 jobs is capped 10/10 :)

ZippyDSMlee @ Aug 6th 2008 5:28PM

SO they finally gave up on porting the PS2 version to the states?

Draco @ Aug 6th 2008 5:40PM

Am I the only one that misses the old school Phantasy Star? IV especially, that and the old school Shinning Force games.

Man those were awesome.

ZippyDSMlee @ Aug 6th 2008 5:46PM

they remade them on the PS2 or were going to redo them all, but stopped, bastards PSO is a generic daiblo on LSD animeu trip.(kidding....partially...)
Phantasy Star RPG>PSO>PSU always....always....

Maverick Saturn @ Aug 6th 2008 5:58PM

Phantasy Hunter Portable 2G

A duo to not be messed with :)

Now all they need is the Monster Hunter 2G release over here and the Monster Hunter 3 PSP MMO and everything will be fine :)

Josh @ Aug 6th 2008 6:42PM

Monster Hunter 3 is for Wii.

Phantasy Star Portable, sucks that it doesn't have a lobby you can walk around in.

Maverick Saturn @ Aug 6th 2008 6:50PM

Yeah I know 3 is on Wii, but I don't see why they can't make another (most likely 3 as I doubt they could jump to MH4 from 2 on PSP) MH for PSP after seeing its success. Its one thing having it on Wii, but you can't play Wii on the go can you, so while I have Wii, the Wii version to me is rather useless unless I'm home and comfortable and my family are in no mood to play Wii sports.

And if they do a MH3 for PSP, It would be cool if for once it was online, it would rule ^^